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Damage Control in Brussels

A new campaign was launched on Thursday to convince tourists that Brussels is now safe to visit after the Belgian capital was paralyzed by a lockdown in November following the terrorist attacks in Paris. “There has been a noticeable decline in the number of foreign tourists in the Brussels -capital region since then,” the city’s tourism agency, which initiated the campaign, said in a statement. This has had “serious consequences, particularly for players in the tourism industry,” with international media portraying Brussels as “a war zone that tourists would do well to avoid,” it said, Euroactiv reported. The #CallBrussels campaign will seek to restore the city’s image by opening yellow telephone boxes across three emblematic locations in the city — the Mont des Arts, Place Flagey and the town square in Molenbeek. Passers-by will be able to call volunteering local residents who “are well placed to reassure tourists” about the security situation. Brussels’ image was seriously tarnished after the Paris attacks, when prosecutors identified one of its neighborhoods, Molenbeek, as a base camp for the terrorists.